poplar road

I finished (hurrah!) priming the kitchen cabinets (and we have a LOT of cabinets), which involved scrubbing for almost an entire day with TSP every reachable surface to remove things I won't mention here... and then sanding to smooth out the shelves and trim (including Richard doing a little belt sanding - what a mess!). Having spent almost an entire day scrubbing, imagine my face as Richard insisted the sanding was necessary and all my clean surfaces were then deliberately covered in dust, to be wiped again (but much quicker that time). I have spent most of the last four days in the kitchen, and am sick of the sight of it; but now that all but the drawers have been primed, it won't take nearly as much slave labour to put on the final coat of white. Nor will it be such a gruesome chore just sticking my face inside some of the cupboards. And, better yet, I have this amazing extension on my paintbrush (two stir sticks and duct tape) that allows me to reach the back walls of the deep lower cupboards (no lazy susans here!) so that the photo Richard took of me this afternoon with my head and shoulders inside the cupboard as I lay on the floor cannot be repeated. (He thought I ought to post that tonight but I think not.)

So, the kitchen cabinets have gone from cream doors and butter-yellow trim, to no doors (colour yet to be decided) and very clean white inside and out, which is how they will stay once the final coat of white goes on them starting tomorrow evening.

The bathroom, which we're not doing much to other than paint for now, is a challenge, as the sink, toilet, and tub are that classic powder blue I'm sure most of you have seen before. The previous owners chose BEIGE as the complimentary colour, and added a couple of other unflattering shades of blue just for fun. I've painted the medicine cabinet and cupboard beneath the sink with white, and we bought a primer that will cover tile (thanks Mom for the suggestion) so when I prime the walls the beige tile backsplash will get covered as well. Incidentally, the ugly tub surround was put in over top of original tiles, I discovered while sanding. They were blue and white, and it's a pity as they would have been much nicer to live with. Judging from the weak spot in the drywall a few inches above that, however, there was a good reason for putting in the surround. We keep finding things as we go (and by the way, the mice are finding our things quite to their liking). The bathroom has a fresh ceiling and medicine cabinet, and looks much better already, but it still needs paint on the walls, door and trim. Definitely before the end of the week. Just not tonight, despite my best efforts. Richard finished the ceiling for me this evening after I started on it far too late and got frustrated far too quickly. I'm too short, I've decided. Not good for someone who hates ladders.

Anyway, on to Richard's tasks: the office and great room exterior walls. He worked very hard these past four days, but the electrical slowed him down a lot. On Wednesday night our trip to the hardware store included everything but the drywall (10 packages of R-22 insulation fit in the back of the truck, believe it or not) and he thought he'd be needing to buy drywall this morning. Instead he had to make a couple more trips for electrical supplies, get help on mystery wires from our wonderful new neighbour, Jonathan (the llama-and-goat man), and shut off most of the power in the house to finish the upstairs wiring over the last three days. But on Thursday and Friday he did get the rotten windowbox beam removed from the office wall as well as removing all the rest of the drywall and insulation from the great room, framed everything to increase the wall thickness for more insulation, and put in vapour barrier. And he framed the wall that will separate my office (the former sunken living room) from the family/dining area. I just have to find myself a door. Wooden ones (as in finished with varnish, not paint) are hard to come by up here.

Not being able to get to the insulation really bugged him, but the nightmare electrical panel he's dealing with downstairs held him up. He was happy to have finished it early this evening, and spent a couple of hours tidying everything up afterward so the place is livable for the week. Hopefully the electrician will make it out here this week and we can get our upgrade done, too.

So, we're behind schedule but very productive, despite poor sleep and a few little surprises. (Like pulling out my frying pan from the heap of cooking supplies in storage, and wondering what the small, black oval things rolling around in the bottom were... Sigh.) We still had time to take the back road home one night and look around at the neighbourhood, and on the drive to Chase (twice) we've seen bald eagles overhead and in the trees - the Thompson is prime salmon territory and it's peak season. Plus, we've spent some time over at Jonathan and Sandra's: on Wednesday their llamas, Cam and the unusually friendly Supper (his amiable disposition saved him!) had a 21 pound baby, Scorpio. Jonathan's large herd of goats went over to the llama's hut one at a time to say hello to the new arrival. And I got to spend a night alone in this place on Tuesday while Richard was on a trip to Revelstoke and Invermere. I confess that my nerves got the better of me around midnight when something started dragging something somewhere. I was only partially relieved when something turned into an animal, rather than a burglar, with loud snarling and ripping noises. I imagined a bear or a pair of coyotes (Jonathan had said something was stealing his rabbits), and when the noise faded down the hill and J&S's dogs began barking, I expected to hear something get shot. But it turned out another neighbour lets his pair of mutts run around getting into trouble and they regularly get into people's stuff at night - a bag of garbage in this case. I spent the night with the flashlight and the phone close to hand, not that either would do me any good. Still, I was able to sleep once the ruckus settled down and laugh about it with Richard the next day. All in all, it's awfully QUIET around here. I can just imagine how peaceful it will be in a couple of weeks when it starts to snow. Looking forward to that.

So the renovation marathon continues, Richard is due for another business trip, and I have three days of work to schedule in with painting and other chores. I'll try to do another update Tuesday or Wednesday night if time allows, with pictures, I hope. Lesson number four: set reasonable expectations!